Coronavirus: Supermarkets allowed to give discounts again

About 1,500 products have even become over 10% more expensive. Credit: Colruyt

Supermarkets will implement discounts and promotions from this week again, as “hoarding has stopped,” according to Nathalie Muylle, Federal Minister for Consumers.

Muylle is finalising a regulation to lift the temporary ban on discounts, she told Het Laatste Nieuws. “Now that hoarding has stopped, we can review the measure,” she said.

A comparison of Colruyt’s cash register tickets is circulating on social media, showing that, for example, a large bag of chips has become 29% more expensive.

Colruyt said that it has received “a lot of reactions” about the prices over the past few days, reports Het Nieuwsblad. “We had warned about this when discounts actions and promotions suddenly became forbidden to discourage hamster behaviour,” said Colruyt spokesperson Hanne Poppe.

“People are just paying the normal prices now. If there are no discounts, you just pay more for the same products,” said Poppe. “That is where most of the price differences are. Only a few products are actually getting more expensive due to scarcity on the market, such as the lemons from Spain,” she added.

Translation: “Supermarkets considerably more expensive in 2 weeks. Now that the hoarding has stopped, Nathalie Muylle must allow discounts, sales and actions again. The consumer now pays way too much.”

The supermarket chain has asked Muylle to lift the ban as soon as possible, so they can start carrying out discounts and promotions again “in the interest of the consumer.”

“It is still a matter of details. After that, the promotions that were already running, and planned for the coming weeks can go ahead anyway. That will certainly be taken care of this week,” Mullye added.